Muddy track a lifeline for residents after slip

Lucas Tunley, 6, and Annabel Milburn, 7, will have to walk past the slip for another few days. Photo / Dean Purcell

A muddy walking track has been a vital link for a rural community of 80 families to their jobs, stores and schools for 41 days.

They live north of the Matakana Valley Rd summit where a new section of road is being built around a massive slip.

Car access to Matakana Village and Warkworth has been interrupted since the slip after Cyclone Wilma on January 29.

Transport Auckland says it is unlikely the road will be reopened even to one-way traffic before next week.

Resident Michael Dixon said one lane of the road dropped into a ravine and it was deemed unsafe to use the other one.

"It's a big job to fix. They are on to it, though they could have done better.

"Families with two cars have had to park one either side of the slip and walk between them.

"Coming home, you are bringing groceries, bags of animal feed and petrol."

Mr Dixon said the agency had hired Insight Security to watch over parked cars and to provide a quadbike shuttle to carry residents' gear over the track.

The alternative to the track was a 50-minute drive via Whangaripo.

The school bus serving the area had been forced to turn around before the slip on the Matakana side of the hill.

This has forced resident Justin Basevi to drive his three children to Mahurangi College, where he teaches.

"So the kids are staying at school an extra 90 minutes until I finish work," he said.


The slip has meant a 2km daily trek in gumboots for resident and Matakana School principal Darrel Goosen.

He shares his walk with about 40 primary and secondary students.

"It's disruptive but incredibly good for the people whose homes are tucked away here, because they get to meet each other while walking the slip," Mr Goosen said.



Matakana Valley Rd is also used by emergency services and as a link between State Highway 1 and the Matakana tourism area and regional parks.

Transport Auckland maintenance manager Murray Noone said the summit slip was the biggest of 20 slips on that road on January 29.

Geotechnical engineers had considered that further movement was likely and closed the section to traffic.

Work had begun immediately on a new $1 million road to bypass the slip.

However, work stopped for a fortnight to negotiate with owners of the land taken for the diversion.

Both lanes will be open by the end of the month.